Collapsed water main forces Headley road closure

Drivers advised to seek alternative route

Jane Meredith

jane.meredith@newburynews.co.uk

Contact:

01635 886637

A HEADLEY road remained closed this morning (Thurs) after a collapsed water main forced a closure.

Southern Water have confirmed the burst and collapsed water main has forced a closure of a stretch of the Ashford Hill Road, which is likely to remain closed for at least two more days, during repairs.

The Ashford Hill Road was closed yesterday (Wed) and remained closed today (Thurs), at the junction with the A339.

The road is closed through Headley, between Tan House cottages and the steel and metal works.

Access for residents is allowed.

Drivers were advised to seek an alternative route.

The remaining stretch of Ashford Hill Road - which runs through the village of Ashford Hill - remains open, according to Southern Water.

Southern Water today released the following statement:

"As part of the proactive leak detection work across our region, we received a high flow alarm – which alerts us to unusually high water flows - on the 4” mains pipe in Ashford Hill, Headley, in the early hours of Wednesday 2 November. Following our investigations, we isolated the main and discovered that the problem was far more complex than originally thought, as the location of the main (opposite Tan House Cottages) is very deep and the main had collapsed.

“Our team worked through the night to fix the issue and the pipe was finally repaired at 2am this morning. However, as this is a complex problem, a great deal of reinstatement is needed in order to fully complete the repair and make sure the road is safe for traffic to use.

“We apologise to everyone affected by our work and thank them for their patience. We are working hard to complete the road reinstatement as soon as possible. We will reopen the road as soon as it is safe to do so, although we expect it to be closed, with diversions in place, for at least another couple of days.”